In an exclusive interview with Filmfare, Mark and Vanessa opened up about casting tigers, working with Priyanka Chopra Jonas, and more.
How did the concept for Tiger come to you?
Mark: Disney set up a theatrical label more than a decade ago. They wanted to do 75-minute wildlife shows. We were very excited about this. They did some audience research and discovered that tigers are the world’s most popular animal. So 44 countries say tigers are the best; even here, it’s the most favourite animal of Americans in pretty much every state. They don’t choose their own bears or things you might expect. So they said, “Can you make us a tiger film?” And we said, “No way; it’s far too difficult. Too challenging.” Vanessa and I have both filmed tigers before, so we knew what we were talking about. We then went on to make films about monkeys, elephants, chimpanzees, and other things instead. Then we got a call from our Indian colleagues who said, If you want to make a tiger film, now is the time. Tigers are on the rise. The parks are incredibly happy about this and keen to promote it. We had some fantastic tigers in good filmable territories that we knew would work. And so all of the stars aligned, and we decided now was the time.
What was it like working with Priyanka Chopra Jonas?
Vanessa: We had one voice in mind. We just said we have to have Priyanka narrating this film because she’s huge in India. She’s an international film star, she’s a great actress, she’s got a phenomenal voice, and we also discovered that she was hugely passionate about tigers. So when she saw the film and was excited to be on it and then promote it, we couldn’t have been happier. She really owned some of those lines. It feels so powerful because she’s talking about her forests.
Mark: She was absolutely lovely, and her passion for the Tigers really comes through. It was really important for us to have a voice that we thought Indians would like to listen to. This film is more for Indians. Not only is it the most populous country that has done a fantastic job of promoting wildlife, but we also had so much help from Indians to make it happen. It’s a full-on collaboration. We had an Indian co-producer and a lot of Indian people filming. We also had all of the tiger guides and experts. It would have been impossible to film without them. We couldn’t even see the tigers half the time. Our guides would go, “Look, there’s a tiger.” It was very much a team effort. We produced the final production as something that Indians would want to watch, and we thought Priyanka was a good choice.
How did you decide which tigers to cast for the documentary?
Mark: What we usually do is start with a female—in this case, a female who was pregnant and we knew was going to have cubs and was in a territory that looked relatively easy to film because no tiger territories are easy. Then you just have to wait to see what happens. We’re often asked, Do you start with a script? We start with an idea of all the things that we might possibly be able to film during the course of a production. And we set out one by one, trying to film those things. What you hope is that, during the course of filming, even better things happen. Then you change your story, and you go with the flow. That’s what happened in this case. We couldn’t possibly have hoped to film tigers hunting sloth bears and gifting them. Many of the things that we filmed were not on our original list of things we hoped to get. We had to evolve our script from day to day as we got the material. I think people will be surprised that tigers have such different personalities, which is really daft because anyone who’s got a pet, a dog or a cat, won’t be surprised. Of course, they have different personalities.
Vanessa: We were lucky because of the personalities of the cubs. To have a litter of four cubs is quite unusual. To be able to follow them that intimately, where you see their personalities actually emerging, is beautiful. They were just so distinct. You’ve got Ravi the adventurer, Golly the clumsy one, Charm the shy one, and Ivy the climber. It comes across very clearly in the film when you see the different journeys that they take. It’s very individual.
